What Fills Empty Spaces
by Irony'sFriend
Summary: Modern AU. When Huck doesn't come to school for the third time in a row, Tom skips class to find out why. He knows too much about Huck's past not to worry.


**a/n: **I know, I know. Who the heck writes AU gay fanfiction for a classic literature book? I don't know, man. I read the book for my AP Literature class, and then I just fell in love with Huck and his relationship with Tom, and so yeah. This resulted.

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn._

* * *

><p>What Fills Empty Spaces<p>

Tom noticed Huck's absence immediately, the empty desk staring at him from the moment he walked into the classroom, and while Huck had a tendency to skip school, the first seeds of worry still pitted themselves in his stomach. Today marked the third absence this week, and Tom's feelings officially switched from jealousy at the adventures Huck must be having to fret at what could be keeping Huck so long. Tom barely paid attention in class at the best of times, but now he fidgeted so in his desk that Becky shot him a pointed look from across the room.

When the bell rang, their grade stormed into the hallways. Tom started to slip into the throes, but Becky grabbed him arm.

"Your class isn't that way," she accused. Her perfectly made up eyes bored through any excuse Tom might have made.

Tom nearly growled. "This is the third time Huck's skipped in a row."

Once she realized Tom didn't plan to shirk chemistry for the crawfish holes again, Becky's expression softened. She knew enough about Huck's past to understand Tom's worry. "Why don't you text him then?" she suggested.

"You know he doesn't have a cell phone," Tom snapped.

Perhaps Tom should have been a bit more accommodating toward Becky, for her grip around his arm immediately tightened at his sharp tone. She huffed, "Besides, you're not responsible for him. Mrs. Douglas has custody, and she'll make sure he's fine. He probably just caught the flu."

Tom sneered and jerked his arm out of Becky's hold. Even if she nagged at him for a month afterward, he wasn't going to slink back to class. Becky might dismiss Huck's absence as a bout of sickness, but Tom knew better. Such an ordinary tragedy did not fit into the pattern of Huck's life.

Sneaking out of school became second nature to Tom a long time ago. He knew the patterns of the teachers well enough to slip out to the school parking lot when Mr. Thatcher hit his daily bathroom break and Mrs. Phelps refilled her iced tea in the teacher's lounge. Once he slipped into the truck and started the engine, he was basically free.

The widow Douglas lived on the outskirts of town, so Tom rarely saw Huck save for school and the times when Tom sneaked to Huck's window in the dead of night. Nevertheless, Tom knew the way to his friend's new home almost better than the road to his own house. He drove about ten miles per hour over the speed limit all the way to Mrs. Douglas's driveway and then practically flew to her door.

He knocked with enough force to break the door down, and when Mrs. Douglas finally answered, her left eye twitched with annoyance.

"Tom Sawyer," she greeted stiffly. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Tom didn't waste time with the usual formalities adults liked to dance through. "Where's Huck? He hasn't been in class for three days."

The disapproval Mrs. Douglas always wore around Tom practically melted away, and the worry that replaced it made Tom's stomach turn. He much preferred when the widow glared at him with disdain than when she twisted her hands in such a fret. He tried to peer through the doorway for some glimpse of the inside, but Mrs. Douglas blocked the entire way.

"Huckleberry just returned yesterday, but he still isn't feeling quite well," the widow explained vaguely, her eyes bouncing anywhere but on Tom. "I'm sure he'll be back in school next week."

"Next week?" Tom exclaimed. "And what do you mean, he came back yesterday? Where did he go? Is he here now? Can I see him?"

Very few could hold their own against Tom's particular brand of interrogation, and the widow Douglas was no exception. Without her sister Ms. Watson here to act as a buffer, Tom knew just how to play his cards to get what he wanted. Mrs. Douglas had too big of a heart for her own good.

"Please, he's my friend, and I'm worried about him," Tom pushed.

Mrs. Douglas bit her lip, but when she sighed heavily, Tom knew he had her. "Perhaps a friend could do Huck some good," she decided. "I believe he went out for some fresh air. I've kept him in house ever since he came back, and he caught cabin fever quite exceptionally. You can likely find him down by the creek. When you do see him, tell him lunch will be ready in a couple of hours, and he should be cleaned up by then."

Tom nodded, but he already inched around the house before the widow could finish talking. As soon as he heard where to find Huck, nothing else rated as important in his mind.

A creek that ran straight from the river cut through the forest behind the widow's house, and the fishing/swimming hole became a favorite place to play for Tom and Huck. The thick trees kept them hidden from Mrs. Douglas's watchful eyes, and something about the running water made them both happier than they could ever be anywhere else. Tom cursed himself for not think about the creek first and wasting his time with the widow.

Then again, Mrs. Douglas told him a few things Huck likely wouldn't have spilled himself. Now that Tom had a slight clue, he could push Huck for further information.

Tom darted through the forest without care for how the brambles tugged on his good school trousers. Curse his school clothes and the school with it. Huck's welfare was far more important, and Tom didn't see how Becky and everyone else didn't realize that.

His family and most of the faculty looked down on his friendship with Huck since the other boy had such a rough past. He came from a long line of druggies and drunks, and his father was the worst of them all. His family became famous in the town as a pack of troublemakers, and most wrote Huck off as one of them before they even met him.

Thankfully, child services took Huck out of that home, and Mrs. Douglas gained custody of him. While Huck went to school and worked hard to better himself, with a few roadblocks of course, most still treated him like less than dirt.

The whole thing made Tom so mad, but he didn't care what anyone else said. Huck was a good person and his friend, and Tom would do anything for him.

When Tom finally caught sight of Huck by the creek, his heart rose in his throat… and then plummeted to his stomach.

"Huckleberry Finn, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Huck crouched over a raft made from the riffraff found around Mrs. Douglas's house, and he already pushed the structure halfway into the creek before Tom's shout made him startle violently. The boy dropped his raft as if it had framed him, and he turned around, relief bleeding into his expression only once he realized Tom shouted at him and not someone more dangerous. However, that relief only lasted as long as it took Tom to march through the woods and grasp the front of Huck's shirt.

"I _know_ you're not doing what I think you're doing," Tom growled. He brought Huck's face inches from his own. Though they were the same age, Huck stood shorter and smaller due to years of malnutrition, and Tom could manipulate him without much trouble when he caught Huck off guard.

"T-Tom! What the hell-?" Huck sputtered before Tom released him almost as suddenly as he grabbed him.

Horror dawned across Tom's face and froze his limbs until he looked as if he had seen a ghost. Once the initial shock wore away, his eyes narrowed dangerously, and his whole persona darkened. Huck barely had time to recover from Tom's unexpected appearance and hostility before his friend's mood swung in an entirely different direction, and he practically shrunk before Tom's eyes.

"What the hell happened to you?" Tom demanded.

Huck blushed and averted his eyes with shame. Nasty bruises varying from purple to green marked his face, and swelling affected his right eyes and parts of his arms. Tom had been in plenty of fights, but he never suffered damage like this, and these were just the parts of Huck that Tom could see.

"Huckleberry Finn, who did this? Tell me right now, and I'll whip them! I'll come just an inch short of killing them," Tom vowed. His fists clenched as if preparing to follow up on his promise right that moment.

Huck shook his head. "Geez Tom, it's not anything to get so worked up over. Shouldn't you be in school anyhow?" he said.

Tom huffed, "You're a fine one to talk, holed up here for three days straight. What do you think you're doing anyway? I know you're not trying to run away again. Mrs. Douglas will be cross, and the school may not let a dropout come back again twice."

"I just don't want to be here anymore," Huck said almost so quietly that Tom couldn't hear.

"Don't want to be here?" Tom exclaimed. He threw his arms up into the air with the dramatics that so complemented his personality. "So you're just going to leave? Without even saying goodbye? Do we mean nothing to you?"

"No, Tom!" Huck shouted. The outburst actually quieted Tom when he recognized the distress outlining every angle of Huck's body. The smaller boy looked close to tears, and his bruises and swelling gave him such a pitiful impression that Tom felt guilty for yelling at him. "No, I don't want to be here! Not when my Pap can come back at any time and do this to me!"

Huck's words stole the petty anger from Tom's body, and he stood in the forest a mere husk. If a wind had chosen to tear through at that moment, Tom would have fallen over in his time of weakness. Helplessness froze him with an icy finality, and he wished more than anything that he could go back in time and erase every circumstance that led him and his friend to here.

They were juniors in high school. Tom went home to a game system, a fridge full of food, clean clothes, and an internet connection that helped him more with homework than teachers. He only half-thought of running away when his parents lectured him about something he knew he had done wrong.

Huck put together a ramshackle raft that likely wouldn't last a mile in the creek because he feared for his safety when his Pap came around and remembered he had a son.

"What happened, Huck? Mrs. Douglas said you got back yesterday… Where have you been?" Tom breathed, almost too terrified to voice the words.

Huck sighed and turned his back to his friend. He half-heartedly sent a kick toward his raft, but he missed and sat down next to it instead. Mud stained his pants, but he didn't seem to notice.

Tom stumbled forward and settled down next to his friend, caring not for how the river mud ruined his clothes. He could buy more later. The two boys stared out at the creek as the water rushed over smooth river stones and offered a quiet roar to the forest.

"Pap heard about that contest we won last year, but he didn't catch the part about the prize money being a scholarship. He snuck into my room a few nights ago and started pestering me to give it to him, and he didn't believe me when I told him I couldn't get to it right now. That it was for college, you know? So he got mad and took me out to his place."

The dead tone Huck used as he recounted his story chipped away at Tom's heart, but the fact that the stupid contest they won was the root of Huck's pain blew a hole through his chest. Huck didn't want to do it, but Tom talked him into entering a forensic simulation program sponsored by the local college. Using Huck's street smarts and Tom's education, they solved the murder mystery and won a decent scholarship to be used in later years. They even made the newspaper for that one little stunt, and even better, a few of the community members started to look at Huck as more than just a fugitive. The contest was actually the main reason Mrs. Douglas agreed to adopt him.

That status certainly didn't help him now though, and a cold fury rose up in Tom as Huck continued.

"Mrs. Douglas called the place right away, but they can't take a missing person case until the body's been gone a full twenty-four hours, and Pap's my biological father. By law, they couldn't do nothing without proof that he was going to hurt me, but that didn't come until after. Pap kept me cooped up tight in his trailer house, but I managed to get out by unscrewing a window from its frame. I ran back to Mrs. Douglas yesterday, and she has the police working on a restraining order against old Pap. Not sure how that's going to work though because the chief has gotten it in his head that he's going to reform Pap instead. Won't last long."

"Damn it, Huck," Tom hissed. His hands kneaded fists into his trousers. "I ought to whip that lousy father of yours!"

"Don't bother. Mrs. Douglas says he won't mess with me no more."

"Then why are you running away?" Tom challenged.

Huck shrugged, and Tom never saw a kid look so defeated. "Pap has never paid much attention to the law before."

Tom hated the burning in his blood and the tightness in his chest. This physical sensation, this need to do something, was the exact reason he joined the wrestling team, and he thought he'd explode if he didn't punch someone right now. However, as fury passed over him in overwhelming waves, a crippling hurt clogged his throat. Why did he react to this injustice with righteous anger while Huck barely reacted at all? Was his friend really so conditioned to this way of life?

"Stay with me," Tom blurted out before he could stop himself.

"W-what?" Wide-eyed and confused, Huck stared at his friend, and Tom wanted to kick something that this kid would be so surprised at a simple act of kindness.

"Not every night of course," Tom clarified. "Sometimes I'll stay with you. Old Douglas won't mind, not when I tell her why. We'll take turns at each other's houses. Just until your Pap moves onto some other town or gets locked up."

A blush colored Huck's cheekbones, and his eyes shined with grateful tears. Something warm and soothing replaced the tightness in Tom's chest.

"And you're going back to school, Huck. You have to graduate, so we can go to the college together. Might as well use the scholarships now that we got them," Tom decided.

Huck nodded so eagerly that Tom thought he'd make himself dizzy. "Yeah! Yeah… I can graduate… go to college…" Such awe glowed from Huck's skin that Tom wondered just what Huck planned to do with his life if he never thought he would get a chance at education.

"Now put that damned raft away," Tom ordered. "We can use it for fishing, I guess, but nothing else. Since we've both skipped school for the day anyway, we might as well take advantage. Let's hit the crawfish holes."

The two boys stomped into the creek in search for the shellfish, and that night, Tom stayed with Mrs. Douglas and Huck. Just as Tom suggested, Huck stayed with Tom's family the next night. Even when the police arrested Pap for child abuse, they still stayed at one another's as often as they could.

Neither one liked too much empty space around him.


End file.
